Monday, May 20, 2013

A Step in the Write Direction--May 20, 2013

A Step in the Write
Direction

May 20,
2013

Update:

Finally got all the acceptance
emails out for the father/grandfather
anthology. Now comes the harder part—editing! This is going to be a really
good book, and I’m excited about its release….We were praying constantly
yesterday for our daughter and family who live in Cushing, Oklahoma. They were about 20-30 miles from
Carney which sustained a lot of tornado
damage, and not that far from Shawnee. More storms are expected today…For
anyone acquainted with Cecil Murphey
(author of such books as 90 Minutes in
Heaven and Gifted Hands, his wife
passed away last weekend from a massive stroke. You can send a card to:
4297 Tucker North
Court.

Scholarships:

Instead of sending flowers to Reg
Forder when his wife Eleanore died and to Cecil, I’m going to accept donations
which will be used for scholarships for the November Arizona Christian Writers
Conference that Reg leads. You can make out the check to ACW or pay through
PayPal.

Thought for the
Day:

"Don't
just tell people to aim high, but steady the ladder while they do
so."

—Debra
J. Dickerson, An American Story

Note from Donna: We need to
encourage other writers along the way as those in the past have encouraged
us!

Laugh for the
Day:

One
morning a grandmother was surprised to find that her 7-year-old grandson had
made her coffee. Smiling, she choked down the worst cup of her life. When she
finished, she found three little green Army men at the bottom. Puzzled, she
asked, “Honey, what are these Army men doing in my coffee?” Her grandson
answered, “Like it says on TV, Grandma. ‘The best part of waking up is soldiers
in your cup.’” (For those who aren’t
familiar with this ad, it says, ‘The best part of waking up is Folgers in your
cup.’)

Prayer
Request:

I
don’t very often ask for prayer for myself, but if you get a spare moment, you
can send up a prayer for my COPD which is getting progressively worse. This last
month or so has been especially bad. Thanks!!

Reader’s
Question: Do I have to get
written permission for every source I quote in my book, even if I give the
credit in the body of the text

Answer: The rule on that is "fair use." In other words, how much of
their information are you using and how long is the manuscript you're writing.
For example, if you were writing a 300-word article and quoted 200 words from
someone else, that wouldn't be considered fair use. Or if you used 1000 words of
their 2000 word article that wouldn't be considered fair use.

One
editor said at a conference you can use 100 words from a 100-page book, 200
words from a 200-page book, etc., and that sounded pretty good. When I had wrote
two books for John Wiley & Sons, they told me I could use up to 300 words
without permission as long as I gave the proper credit line, but usually I hear
100 words as fair use.

Also,
even if you’re not quoting someone verbatim, but the “idea” belongs to them, you
should give them credit. For example, if you said “Big Brother is watching you,”
that isn’t 100 words, but the quote comes from Orwell’s 1984.

However, the 100-word limit does NOT apply to music. In
music, you can't quote more than one line without permission, and sometimes this
is difficult to obtain especially on contemporary gospel music or secular music.
But you can paraphrase the words or just give the title.

About Me

Donna Clark Goodrich, freelance writer, editor, and speaker is a wife, mother of three and grandmother of two. A native of Jackson, Michigan, she has lived in Mesa, Arizona, since 1969. She enjoys teaching at Christian writers conferences. Author of 23 books and over 700 published manuscripts, Donna says, “I write devotional and self-help books to encourage Christians in their daily walk with God, how-to books to train writers, biographies to tell other people's stories, short stories and poetry for readers' enjoyment, and personal experience articles to share how God has helped me through life situations.”
dgood648@aol.com; www.thewritersfriend.net